All week I’ve been listening to various pundits explain how the iPhone killed the iPod. Which I agree with. But I haven’t heard anyone explain how the iPhone morphed into something which is no longer a very good iPod. The iPhone has actually turned into more of a mini-tablet.
The iPod Touch was really just a decontented iPhone. And it’s no accident that the form factor never progressed beyond the size of the iPhone 6/7 with the 4.7” screen size. That’s because iPods were always meant to be mobile devices which you could walk around or exercise with. When the iPhone 6 Plus crossed the Rubicon into mini-tablet territory the iPod refused to follow.
Any device used primarily for music needs to be designed with the thought of how exercisers will use it. That’s because exercise and music go together like Joe Biden and unintelligible sentences. Exercisers need that extra boost that music can provide and it needs to fit into our gym shorts. Or it needs to be small and light enough to wear on an armband.
I’m sorry Apple, but my iPhone 6 not the Plus version, was the last iPhone I was willing to strap onto my arm. After that, my Plus sized iPhones just seemed too unwieldy to be bouncing along on my bicep. But lucky for me, the Apple Watch arrived on the scene just in the nick of time.
Yes, the iPod passed the baton to the iPhone. But the iPhone quickly passed that baton to the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch beats the iPhone on the mobility front handily. It is so much nicer to strap your watch to your wrist than your iPhone to your arm. Not to mention, it’s much easier to look at your watch screen mid-stride than it is your iPhone.
I love my Series 7 Apple Watch. And to this day, I still sometimes look at it during a run and marvel that it’s sending music to my AirPods and showing me text messages from my wife or giving me reminders while my iPhone is back on my bedroom dresser. All in a tiny device that weighs not much more than my t-shirt.
But I suspect that those of us who use their Apple Watch as their primary music iPod are still in the minority. And it’s easy to see why.
Getting music onto your Apple Watch is a pain in the butt. I don’t think most people have the patience to learn the process or sit through it. That’s because you can’t download music from the Apple Watch Music app like you can on your iPhone. Instead, you have to go to the Apple Watch settings app on your iPhone and synchronize a playlist. But wait, that’s not all. You also can only synchronize a playlist while the Apple Watch is docked onto a power charger. But wait, that’s not all, you can’t select specific songs. You can only import pre-existing playlists. So if you want a specific set of songs, you have to proactively setup a playlist in advance. As a result, most people aren’t going to jump through all of these hoops.
To be fair, the addition of LTE cellular on the Apple Watch has greatly simplified listening to music on your watch. You no longer have to do all the steps I outlined above since you can stream anything that is in your library via cellular. But I doubt that more than 25% of Apple Watch owners are willing to pay for an extra phone line to use this capability. How popular would the original iPod have been if you had to pay AT&T nearly $15 per month (with taxes and fees) to listen to music?
No, cellular on the Apple Watch is not the answer. Apple needs to make music management on the Apple Watch much easier and more convenient. And not just for music, podcasts too.
If you’re about to head out the door for a run and would like to listen to the latest episode of your favorite podcast you’re out of luck if it’s not already downloaded. Otherwise, you have to remove your watch, place it on the charger and open up the Apple Watch settings app and force a sync.
I’d like to say that it’s as bad as the old days of synchronizing your iPod to iTunes but it’s actually worse. Because you can’t mark things for download in the podcast app. You have to use the settings app again, like music. And there really is no “download” button anywhere. You just have to place your watch on the charger and hope that your iPhone noticed it. Otherwise, you could be waiting for hours sometimes.
From a hardware perspective, the Apple Watch is the perfect device to take over the iPod mantle. It’s small and light and easy to see the screen when you’re exercising. But from a software perspective, there are some real problems. Hmm, where have we heard that before?
Any device used primarily for music needs to be designed with the thought of how exercisers will use it. That’s because exercise and music go together like Joe Biden and unintelligible sentences. Exercisers need that extra boost that music can provide and it needs to fit into our gym shorts. Or it needs to be small and light enough to wear on an armband.
I’m sorry Apple, but my iPhone 6 not the Plus version, was the last iPhone I was willing to strap onto my arm. After that, my Plus sized iPhones just seemed too unwieldy to be bouncing along on my bicep. But lucky for me, the Apple Watch arrived on the scene just in the nick of time.
Yes, the iPod passed the baton to the iPhone. But the iPhone quickly passed that baton to the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch beats the iPhone on the mobility front handily. It is so much nicer to strap your watch to your wrist than your iPhone to your arm. Not to mention, it’s much easier to look at your watch screen mid-stride than it is your iPhone.
I love my Series 7 Apple Watch. And to this day, I still sometimes look at it during a run and marvel that it’s sending music to my AirPods and showing me text messages from my wife or giving me reminders while my iPhone is back on my bedroom dresser. All in a tiny device that weighs not much more than my t-shirt.
But I suspect that those of us who use their Apple Watch as their primary music iPod are still in the minority. And it’s easy to see why.
Getting music onto your Apple Watch is a pain in the butt. I don’t think most people have the patience to learn the process or sit through it. That’s because you can’t download music from the Apple Watch Music app like you can on your iPhone. Instead, you have to go to the Apple Watch settings app on your iPhone and synchronize a playlist. But wait, that’s not all. You also can only synchronize a playlist while the Apple Watch is docked onto a power charger. But wait, that’s not all, you can’t select specific songs. You can only import pre-existing playlists. So if you want a specific set of songs, you have to proactively setup a playlist in advance. As a result, most people aren’t going to jump through all of these hoops.
To be fair, the addition of LTE cellular on the Apple Watch has greatly simplified listening to music on your watch. You no longer have to do all the steps I outlined above since you can stream anything that is in your library via cellular. But I doubt that more than 25% of Apple Watch owners are willing to pay for an extra phone line to use this capability. How popular would the original iPod have been if you had to pay AT&T nearly $15 per month (with taxes and fees) to listen to music?
No, cellular on the Apple Watch is not the answer. Apple needs to make music management on the Apple Watch much easier and more convenient. And not just for music, podcasts too.
If you’re about to head out the door for a run and would like to listen to the latest episode of your favorite podcast you’re out of luck if it’s not already downloaded. Otherwise, you have to remove your watch, place it on the charger and open up the Apple Watch settings app and force a sync.
I’d like to say that it’s as bad as the old days of synchronizing your iPod to iTunes but it’s actually worse. Because you can’t mark things for download in the podcast app. You have to use the settings app again, like music. And there really is no “download” button anywhere. You just have to place your watch on the charger and hope that your iPhone noticed it. Otherwise, you could be waiting for hours sometimes.
From a hardware perspective, the Apple Watch is the perfect device to take over the iPod mantle. It’s small and light and easy to see the screen when you’re exercising. But from a software perspective, there are some real problems. Hmm, where have we heard that before?
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